Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/4110766.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Underage
  Category:
      M/M
  Fandom:
      Danny_Phantom
  Relationship:
      Danny_Fenton/Vlad_Masters
  Character:
      Danny_Fenton, Vlad_Masters
  Additional Tags:
      Slow_Build, Pompous_Pep, Danny's_age_is_debatable, trapped_in_a_bubble,
      extended_period_of_time_alone_together, Psychological_Trauma,
      Vulnerability, Space-time_Shenanigans, Season_3_hasn't_happened,
      Isolation_but_not_really, Eventual_Smut, Age_Difference, Ephebophilia
  Stats:
      Published: 2015-06-10 Updated: 2015-12-07 Chapters: 10/? Words: 15886
****** Minute by Minute ******
by GoldenSnowflake
Summary
     "Stuck in a fishbowl made by your father with your arch enemy. You
     have the worst of luck, don't you?" While in a pocket of the Ghost
     Zone where hours feel like days, Danny springs a trap that leaves him
     with two options that may not be mutually exclusive: talk to Vlad or
     go completely insane.
***** Chapter 1 *****
It started off like any other misfortunate encounter between us - he found me,
interrupted my concentration with absurd, childish trash talk, and attempted to
shoot me with blasts of energy before I could retaliate. I could’ve elected to
fight him off, but he surely would’ve noticed the small, glimmering urn I was
attempting to unearth from where it was lodged in the ground, and the last
thing I need is for him and his friends to come poking around it only to end up
in another dimension where one’s thoughts manifest instantly. Instead, I fled,
delighted when the boy thoughtlessly gave chase.
“Not gonna fight back, Plasmius?” Daniel’s voice echoed through the caverns,
amplified by the layers of ghostly, intertwining stone. “You must be smarter
than I thought.”
I leapt from the sheer cliff the mouth of the cave opened into and took flight
toward another suspended mass of weathered rock, not needing to glance behind
me to know that he was following close behind. “Whatever helps you sleep at
night, Daniel.” He hurled another blast at me, narrowly missing. He uttered
something under his breath when two of my doppelgangers and I emerged from our
hiding place, scattering in several directions, all leading away from the
treasure I’d have to return to at a later date. Noble as ever, the boy
followed.
Watching him fight off both of my clones betrayed the fact that he was still
improving, becoming quicker and more clever when dodging both close-ranged
tactics and distanced ones. The greenish murk of the ghost zone swirled around
him, and I made sure to hover in plain sight just as the second of my
doppelgangers vanished while he was grappling with it.
“Are you done hiding behind your clones?” His eyes flashed brilliantly with
righteous anger.
“Are you ready to let me teach you how to distinguish between obvious fakes and
your real enemy?”
Baring his teeth, he lunged at me, and with a gleeful grin I led him further.
I had barely begun to decide where to take our battle when a profound feeling
hit me. I froze, my cape billowing around me, and I had a moment to listen
closely before Phantom shouted something close behind.
“Daniel, wait! Something isn’t-”
The teenager made impact, hitting me squarely between my shoulder blades with
his fist and sending me toppling forward in the air. The tight feeling in my
throat intensified a thousand fold, and as I pitched forward, a blinding
forcefield electrified before me. I hit it on my hands and knees, and then he
hit me. I shouted indignantly beneath him, and Daniel let out an undignified
puff of air, stunned by the unexpected landing.
“-right,” I finished lamely.
Danny scrambled to his feet, the sound of his boots resembling that of walking
on a thick piece of glass. I gazed at the energy beneath my palms as it
fluctuated and glowed. The boy fell backward, and he landed flat on his
backside with a grunt. He blinked up at the sizzling wall of energy as it
snapped, his gaze resting on something overhead.
“What’s - is this another one of your lousy traps?”
“Do you think I would be foolish enough to be caught in an invention of my own
design?” The walls surrounding us were curved, and I settled for leaning back
on my hands, sparing a glare at the teenager before following his stare to the
device at the top of the globe. It was a peculiar little disc, and from a tiny
lens on the underside it seemed to be releasing its energy. I ignored Daniel’s
snarky “yes,” scrutinizing the thing, trying to decipher how it was producing
the forcefield and how to deactivate it-
“HELLO!”
The booming voice knocked both of us back, echoing off the walls and making my
teeth vibrate in my skull. I snarled in disgust and Danny yelped in dismay, and
a hologram flickered to life between us, giving a face to the obnoxious voice
that we both immediately recognized.
“Oh no,” Daniel moaned, pressing his palm to his head and blinking at the
flickering image of his father’s smiling face.
“If you’re watching this, you’ve been captured by my one-of-a-kind Fenton Ghost
Globe! Congratulations!”
Maddie’s bright orange goggles appeared at the edge of the frame and Jack
glanced at her.
“Er, uh - it would be one-of-a-kind if we hadn’t made a whole bunch of them …
anyway, there’s no point in trying to escape, because the shield is foolproof!
We think.”
Jack wheezed, clearly having been elbowed off-camera by Maddie.
“You may be wondering why you’ve been captured in one of my brilliant
inventions. And the answer is because you’re a ghost. A bad, bad, ghost. And if
we can stop you from being bad, then, by gosh, we will! The only problem is
that we haven’t figured out how to power the globes for more than twenty four
hours at a time, so as long as you’ve got a magazine or some playing cards with
you, you should be able to stay occupied.”
“Jack.” Maddie’s voice was quieter. The man flinched at her tone. “Don’t tell
them that!”
Jack blinked. “Oh. Sorry, honey.” He cleared his throat, returning his
attention to the camera with a severe expression. “We threw a whole bunch of
these things into the ghost portal, so attempting to enter our world through it
could quite possibly spring yet another trap! Your best bet is to go away and
be bad somewhere else. Trust me: you don’t want to tangle with Jack Fenton.”
The camera went askew and shifted around, catching a second of Maddie scolding
her husband and her husband protesting quietly. The image refocused on Jack’s
face, and he grinned. “Bye!”
The hologram disappeared.
“Please tell me he didn’t say what I think he said,” uttered Danny under his
breath.
Torn between my irritation with Jack and my amusement at Daniel’s distress, I
merely blinked at him. He knocked his head back against the forcefield and
threw his arms out, managing to lie down somewhat despite the cage’s shape.
“Stuck in a fishbowl made by your father with your arch enemy. You have the
worst of luck, don’t you?”
The look he gave me was venomous. “Shut up.”
The silence lasted for a good thirty seconds.
“He didn’t really say twenty four hours, did he? Please tell me I’m losing my
mind.”
“You’re losing your mind.” He frowned at me again and I shrugged innocently.
“What’s gonna happen when I don’t show up for dinner? Or bed? Mom and Dad are
gonna flip.”
“Quite the conundrum, I agree. At least you’re not trapped in another dimension
because of the incompetence of your own father! That’s about the only way I can
imagine this day getting any worse for you.”
This was enough to have him scrambling to sit up. “For once can you - you know
what? Forget it. Can we just … call a truce until this thing powers down? I’ll
just try to sleep and you just sit there and be creepy. Then tomorrow, we go
our separate ways and forget this ever happened.”
My jaw dropped in disbelief. Daniel watched me warily. “What?”
“Do you not … you don’t know, do you?”
He looked to be on the verge of tears. “What don’t I know?”
It took a moment to figure out where to even begin. “How far into the ghost
zone have you travelled?”
“None of your business,” he replied immediately.
“How far have you gone save for the plane on which the Fenton Portal exists?”
“Even if I knew what you were talking about, I wouldn’t tell you.”
“Daniel - have you ever been out this way before? Where you ran into me today.”
“Well, no.” He crossed his arms, brilliant gaze flashing. “What does that have
to do with anything?”
This was good.
I pressed my fingers together, crossing my legs at the ankle. The corner of his
mouth twitched in what appeared to be a fleeting look of disgust. “Not all
areas outside of the human world are governed by the same kind of time.”
“And?” He sounded entirely uninterested.
Pleased at the opportunity to teach the boy something of use, I looked at the
offending piece of technology above our heads in thought. “Think of time as a
measure of the rate at which things decay. Things subjected to a gravitational
pull break down faster than things in space. Things on planets with more
gravity decay faster than they would on other planets. There’s even a teeny
difference in how quickly humans age based on how far from the Earth’s center
they live, and that’s all within the laws of a single dimension, not even
accounting for the way light and temperature dictate a person’s idea of time
passing.”
Despite saying nothing, it was clear that under his expression of skepticism he
was fascinated.
“The reason humans don’t all migrate in droves to live on mountaintops is that
the lower level of gravity at high altitudes only adds a few days onto a
person’s life. Most people would rather live among the hurricanes and giant
pythons in Florida and risk dying young than be up in the cold.” Now I was just
rambling.
“What does any of this have to do with us?”
How to put this gently… hmmm.
“Since the ghost zone and its various dimensions within is governed by
completely different rules of time and physics, a day in the human world feels
like far longer here. Every hour that passes at home without you returning will
be more like an entire day to us here!”
I ended with a flourish, grinning expectantly at Daniel. Not sharing my
excitement, the teen’s face became the color of his hair.
After a long moment, his lips cracked open. “I really hope you’re lying.”
“I’m not.”
I wasn’t.
***** Chapter 2 *****
Closing my eyes and flinching, I shielded myself as Danny hurled a fist at the
device suspended over our heads. Energy exploded where he struck, his fierce
cry bouncing off the walls and making my ears ring.
For the eighteenth time.
Collapsing onto his backside, the teen gasped for breath. To no one in
particular, he yowled, “Why isn’t this working?!”
“It’s a projection, my dear boy,” I replied despite the fact that he was
clearly addressing every organism in the universe other than myself. “You’d
have to break through the forcefield before you could even reach the device
creating it.”
Threading his hands in his hair, Daniel let out a frustrated growl.
“Is it safe to assume that you’re done giving us both migraines?”
“I don’t get migraines.”
“Jack does.”
“Dad?” He lifted his head, propped up by his elbows. “No he doesn’t.”
Surprised that Daniel didn’t know about his father’s headaches, I watched him
silently. He gazed back, expression inscrutable.
“Don’t talk to me,” he finally concluded. His head hitting the forcefield
sounded like a fist rapping on the screen of a tube television.
Silence fell over us for what seemed like hours, the humming of the energy
encapsulating us enough to be almost soothing. After a while, I attempted to
phase back into human form and did so successfully.
“What’d you do that for?”
Daniel was again staring at me.
“The cape was getting a little warm,” I replied dryly.
“How’d you know changing back wouldn’t make you phase through the forcefield?”
I raised an eyebrow at him cryptically in response and he groaned quietly
before smacking his head back down. There was no reason to admit that it simply
hadn’t occurred to me to try until then.
While I hoped we’d be freed before the set limitation, I wasn’t about to get my
hopes up. Jack Fenton has always had a spectacular knack for succeeding only
when the results are detrimental to others. I idly unfastened my cufflinks and
pulled my tie loose, attempting to get as comfortable as possible while
strategizing how to maintain my sanity for what would feel like years before
our release. Daniel’s eyes burned into me as I pretended not to notice.
“You know if there’s a camera on that thing, they’re gonna know who you are,
right?”
“There isn’t one,” I replied simply.
He sat up a little more. “How do you know?”
“Because I recently bought all of the cameras of the brand they use that were
on the market, and all of them to be made for the next month and a half.”
Danny stared at me silently and flopped back against the wall.
At least he seemed too bored to remain quiet for long.
I spent a while scrutinizing my nails and polishing my rings on the silk of my
tie, taking the time to dwell on the location from which I’d purchased each and
focusing on the details surrounding each buy. These memories would anchor me to
my life when time began to warp and feel endless. I had gone through the
upcoming appointments for the rest of the week and the dates of each Packers
game for the remainder of the season before the boy stirred once more.
Daniel rested his hands on his stomach, letting out a long sigh. “How long is
this thing supposed to last?”
“Twenty-four hours.”
There was a moment of contemplation. “And how long will an hour feel for us?”
“About a day.”
I could hear the frown in his voice. “That’s oddly convenient.”
He glanced at me. I shrugged.
“How good are chances that some wandering ghost will find us out here?”
“Greater than the chances of them actually deciding to free us,” I replied.
“Oh,” he muttered. “Right.”
The fog drifted around our bubble. Energy buzzed mutedly.
“If I fall asleep, you better not attack me.” Daniel shifted around, struggling
to find a comfortable position against the curved barrier.
“And ruin the anticipation? Never!”
The boy sniffed, seemingly unsurprised by my reply, but his eyes remained
closed. He interlaced his slender, gloved fingers over the white insignia on
his chest, planting the heels of his boots firmly on the flickering surface. He
was asleep within minutes.
It was peculiar to see him so suddenly at ease. The taut lines of his face
softened gradually, leaving him to appear much younger than he really was.
A strange feeling began to worm its way into my head at seeing the halfa so
still while in his ghost form. So rarely did I encounter him as anything more
than a black streak hurtling toward me that it felt profoundly unnatural to see
him utterly still.
And it never ceased to unnerve me to look at his features. Half Maddie. Half
Jack.
He was their creation - the product of a union that made my insides ache with
agony and envy - and yet he was more like me than either of them could ever
have been. I swallowed thickly, forcing down a swell of anxiety.
If I truly wanted him to become my ally, this would be the greatest opportunity
I would ever get.
Danny slept, completely still save for the rise and fall of his chest, for what
must have been hours. The fact that he was able to fall unconscious anywhere
near me - let alone with the knowledge that I was right next to him, watching -
was a surprise. His constant suspicion of me, righteous as it may be, made it
clear that it wasn’t because he trusted me not to cause trouble. That only left
me the conclusion that he was utterly exhausted.
It made sense, I supposed. His parents were almost entirely absent in the
emotional support department, his peers bullied him relentlessly, and the
weight of protecting Amity Park fell squarely on his small shoulders, and those
were all of the issues aside from puberty and the struggle to plan for the
future. It was honestly quite remarkable that Daniel managed to maintain such
confidence and focus. He was, from my perspective, utterly overwhelmed.
If he would just let me help him, it would be so much easier…
After a long while, he stirred, letting out a long breath. His eyelids
fluttered to and fro and the white hands twitched where they were clasped.
Daniel was quiet once more, but it was obvious that he was awake.
I left him alone for another long while and focused on memorizing the details
of the life I’d left behind in the human world. He remained far too rigid to be
asleep.
Clearing my throat, I rolled the sleeves of my dress shirt up, taking the time
to make the folds meticulous. “It would be beneficial to talk, Daniel.”
The snowy-haired teen huffed with annoyance, moving around as if I’d woken him
up. It wouldn’t have done any good to inform him that faking it was
unnecessary, so I held my tongue.
“Why? So you can mess with my head and try to get me to become your mini-me
again?”
“In the right circumstances, it only takes a few hours for isolated people to
start losing their minds. If we don’t keep ourselves occupied, the thing
‘messing with your head’ will be far worse than me.”
Danny sat up, rolling his shoulders. “Why do you care?”
“I’m only looking out for your wellbeing, my dear boy.” I gave a small shrug,
unable to bear his scrutiny without making some sort of defensive gesture.
“Fat chance,” he muttered. “You’d have to be a selfless, upstanding citizen for
that to be the case.”
He stared at me, deadpan, before we burst into simultaneous laughter. I quickly
realized I was being insulted and scowled at him, but he smirked back, pleased
with himself.
“Come on, Daniel. There’s got to be something inoffensive we can discuss.”
“How about ‘no’?”
Undeterred, I rested a finger under my chin. “How’s school going?”
“None of your business, Vlad.”
“How are your friends?”
“No.”
“Good heavens.” A smile crept onto my face. “How are your parents?”
“Perfectly happy without you.”
“And your sister?”
“Still thinks you’re creepy.”
“How’s dear Valerie?”
“Okay, from what I know - hey.” He pointed an accusatory finger at me. “You
stop that.”
I made no effort to hide my smug grin.
“I’m serious. If you think you’re going to trick me into giving you information
that could hurt my dad, you’re wrong.”
“I do have priorities other than erasing your father from the face of the
Earth, you know.”
“Oh yeah?” He sat forward a bit, pulling his knees toward his chest. “Like
what?”
“Well, investments. I could have firms do my investing for me, but I prefer to
be in control of my portfolio. That alone counts as an entire career.”
“That’s one thing.”
“I write a blog about the Packers too. I’ve studied their strategies and the
dynamics between the players enough to become quite a respected guru among the
fans.”
“That takes what, an hour a week?”
“I study ghosts throughout history and try to sort out the baseless lore from
the actual supernatural phenomena. I then attempt to link the accounts and
stories to the ghosts I know of. It’s incredible how an entire culture can be
shaped by the actions of one ghost with too much time on his hands.”
“Oh.” He blinked owlishly. “That’s … kinda cool, actually.”
“How often do you hear in fairy tales of the sirens who lured sailors to their
deaths with beautiful, hypnotic singing? It’s a story told to children
generation after generation. You and I personally know the ghost responsible.”
“Ember?” His eyes widened when I nodded. “Holy cow.”
“The more events throughout history I can concretely attribute to a specific
ghost, the easier it is to predict how often each individual will cross over
into our world to cause havoc. Being able to paint a better picture of typical
ghost behavior also helps in figuring out how ghost genetics are affecting my
own impulses and desires.”
“Ugh.” Daniel let his forehead fall against his knees. “Can we please not talk
about your impulses and desires?”
My fingers clamped down where they rested on my biceps. “Where you got your
absurd idea that I’m some sort of lecher I’ll never know.”
“You’re kidding, right?” He peeked up at me through his bangs.
“I was always a gentleman with Maddie. Always. I had no reason to think she’d
prefer a much more … forward approach, shall we say. Entitled. Audacious.
Brazen. Et cetera. By the time I’d learned otherwise, I was waking up every
morning in a hospital bed and her interests had shifted … elsewhere.” Venom
seemed to have leaked into my tone at some point. I took a deep breath, willing
the scowl from my face.
“You’re lying,” he uttered.
“I’m not.”
I wasn’t.
“The point, my dear boy, is that I fill my time with far more than making
Jack’s life difficult. Honestly, from what I’ve gathered spying on you all, he
accomplishes that all by himself.”
Daniel gave me a funny look. My hand flew to my mouth.
“Did I say spying? I meant - ah - sending you invitations to fake parties and
paranormal conventions…?”
“How often do you spy on us?”
“Sometimes.” I looked away, resettling my crossed arms over my chest. “A
perfectly moderate amount. I can quit whenever I want.”
“Do you…” He hesitated, and I knew he was biting his lip without having to
look. “You don’t…”
“There are no surveillance devices in your bedrooms, if that’s what’s worrying
you. There are some things even I don’t want to know about.”
He let out a sigh, his shoulders deflating with it. Despite his ghost form’s
immunity to physical tiredness, the exhaustion came off of him in a wave. “I
don’t know why I’m not more horrified at the thought of you watching me when I
think I’m alone … probably just accepted the idea a long time ago.”
Well that was an odd thing to say.
It also brought up another issue. I frowned in thought. He only worried about
being spied on while alone?
“Daniel, are you still dating Miss Manson?”
The way his hands tightened on his knees betrayed the answer. “That’s really
none of your business, Plasmius,” he muttered, and I watched the grimace
flicker across his features before he was able to will it away.
Despite the fact that it shouldn’t have shocked me, I found myself staring at
the space between us in disbelief. Samantha, while a nuisance due to her hatred
of me, seemed to be intelligent and devoted to Daniel’s wellbeing. How long had
I seen him gazing longingly at pictures of her or idly sketching her likeness
in the margins of his textbooks? How many times had the audio feeds in the
Fenton house picked up their lighthearted, nervous conversation?
“Give it time. Things may work themselves out.”
“No.” He looked up at me. “They won’t.”
Something clenched in my chest at the emotionless gleam in his pale green eyes.
It was something I’d seen many times before - mostly in the mirror - yet seeing
the same look reflected on his boyish features defied everything I knew about
him.
“I’m sorry, Daniel.”
Phantom turned his gaze to the green fog swirling around us, his ever-musical
voice devoid of emotion.
“Like hell you are.”
***** Chapter 3 *****
The silence was endless.
Daniel gazed up at the device hanging above us, his eyes following the same
pattern over and over. If he thought he was deciphering some flaw in it, I
couldn’t tell what it might be. He shifted, crossing his legs before pulling
his knees back against his chest minutes later. His features were fixed in a
careful blank, but his shoulders were pulling closer together as time went by,
and his knuckles were going into spasms every time he rested his palms on his
legs. I made a conscious effort to stay calm despite his infectious, antsy
tension. Appointments. Game schedule. Rings.  Had it been a year ago today when
I bought the sleek platinum band on my left index finger? Today was the fifth
... or was tomorrow the fifth?
Danny growled in annoyance and fidgeted again, and I closed my eyes and forced
myself to take a deep, slow breath. The buzz of the forcefield had almost faded
from existence for a while, but now it was deafening, making my ears ring and
my jaw ache.
We couldn’t have been confined here for more than twenty ghost zone-hours yet
it felt like far longer. When my limbs had started feeling stiff I’d changed
back into Plasmius. Even in my inhuman form, though, I was beginning to feel
confined, and infuriatingly, my joints began stinging again. I knew it was
purely psychological which only served to make my anxiety harder to will away.
When I transformed back to my human self, the snowy-haired boy continued to
stare right through me, completely absorbed in his thoughts.
“This is the worst day ever.”
I glanced up at him to find Danny staring upwards, his hands pressed to his
temples.
“Daniel, we need to talk.”
“Leave me alone, Vlad.” He shot me a dismissive glare. “It’s not gonna happen.”
“Assuming your parents’ invention functions as intended, we’ve exhausted four
percent of the device’s energy at most. If we don’t keep ourselves distracted
the results aren’t going to be pretty.”
“What?” He pushed himself into a sitting position, brows furrowed in disbelief.
“Four percent?”
When I only stared at him grimly, he squeezed his eyes shut and let out a long,
shuddering breath.
“We don’t have to talk about you, my dear boy. You choose the topic.”
He hesitated, then nodded, biting his bottom lip. “Okay,” he breathed, more to
himself than me, and a chill ran up my spine. In college, Maddie had done the
same thing dozens of times when confronted with a problem she couldn’t solve. I
swallowed thickly and waited.
“Okay, uh … what exactly did you and my parents study in college?”
“I double-majored in metaphysics and paranormal investigation. Well, I was only
majoring in metaphysical studies, but then I met Maddie. Your mother was
double-majoring in paranormal investigation and electrical engineering. She
said that if she could do it, I could too. That’s how we met Jack.”
“Mom knew you before Dad?” He eyed me skeptically and I nodded.
“By a few months, yes.”
“Did you … I mean, what degree did you get? I know you had the accident, but
you went back, right?”
I rested my clasped hands on my knee, smirking. “Take a guess.”
“You went, um … oh.” He slapped a hand to his forehead. “Is it a master’s
degree?”
“That’s the one!” It was impossible to hide how pleased his unimpressed
expression made me.
“Ugh.” He rested his chin on his knees again, his back heaving with a quiet
sigh. “That’s so much school.”
“It gets better in college, little badger. Whether you were part of the out-
crowd or not-”
“The in crowd,” he corrected.
“-is that what you kids say? -it doesn’t matter once you graduate high school.
You’ll find yourself friends with people you never would have been in public
school.”
The teen gazed up at me tiredly.
“Talk, Daniel. Ask me another question.”
“Uhhh…” He frowned. “How do you get Skulker to work for you? I mean, aren’t you
ever worried he’ll double-cross you?”
“Of course it’s a concern. All of the technological improvements I’ve furnished
for him can be deactivated with a code spoken by my voice only.”
“Oh. That’s pretty smart.” Yes, yes it is. “What’s the password?”
“Well, I’m certainly not going to tell you. Why don’t you take a guess?”
“Hmmm.” A small smile spread across his face. “Maddie Masters?”
He had the nerve to look up at me, only to find me glaring at him. “No.”
“Jack is stupid?”
“No.”
“Jack is dumb?”
“I’m not twelve, boy…”
“Vlad for mayor.”
I shook my head and Daniel pursed his lips in annoyance.
“Go Packers?” I replied with a ‘nope’ and he groaned. “I don’t know what the
stupid code word is. Can’t you just tell me?”
“Where would the fun in that be?” Danny’s frown deepened ever so slightly and
he shifted around, straightening his legs to stretch them and crossing his
arms, mirroring my position. He had subconsciously stretched himself out to
encroach on my personal space, which I was careful not to draw attention to.
Causing him to withdraw again could be disastrous. “When you guess correctly,
I’ll tell you.”
The pull on his brows was petulant at most now. “Why are you such a jerk?”
“To give you the opportunity to ponder such philosophical questions, of
course.”
The boy began drumming his fingers furiously on the electrical field
surrounding us, the taps bouncing off of the walls and echoing strangely. I
winced. “Why can’t you just tell me? It’s not like I’d be able to overshadow
someone who’s half-ghost and as powerful as you are anyway.”
“You really should have more faith in yourself, Daniel. I have no doubt that,
with what I’ve learned already as a head start and training, you could overtake
me with very little trouble.”
His eyes were wide now. “You really think so? Holy crap.”
“It kills me to imagine how much more I could learn studying a halfa other than
myself. It’s so difficult to run tests and experiments as both the lab rat and
the researcher…”
“Maybe you should’ve taken a marketing class,” he snorted. “Because I’m so not
in.”
“Come, now! They’re not all excruciatingly painful.” I clasped my hands,
grinning hopefully.
Perhaps Ishould’vetaken a marketing class…
“Still, it’s kind of amazing that you think I’d be able to overshadow you. I
can barely keep control of my friends for more than a couple of seconds…”
“Practice. It’s only a matter of practice. Although I wouldn’t recommend it
when it comes to those you care deeply about. Things can get … messy.”
“Trust me, I already know,” he uttered under his breath, and his face reddened
almost imperceptibly. “One time this-”
Frowning, I watched as all the color drained from his face.
“Oh. Oh my God-”
“For heaven’s sake, what’s the matter?”
“Did … you never … with Mom and Dad…?”
The cool weight of horror puddled in my stomach. “Oh. Good gracious. What kind
of pervert do you think I am?! Honestly, Daniel, is everything about
procreating with you teens?”
“Pretty much,” came his nonchalant reply. I all but seethed, attempting to
control my breathing and the iridescent blush of ectoplasm that was surely
rising to my face. “Like it wasn’t when you were my age…”
“There’s a difference between being willing to do anything or be anyoneto get
what you want and wanting someone to want you with all their mind and soul. A
big difference.”
He watched me for a long moment, looking startled. I realized that energy was
radiating from my eyes and my fingertips and willed myself to be calm.
“Yeah,” Danny croaked, and while I heard him curling back in on himself, I
couldn’t bring myself to look away from the sluggish haze of green drifting
around us. “You’re right. Sorry.”
I couldn’t gather the enthusiasm to reply.
***** Chapter 4 *****
Time slowed to a halt.
The fog swirled around our prison, licking at the smooth barrier and creating
intricate whorls and wisps. The empty howl of the ghost zone died down at some
point - something I had never been still enough to notice before. My ears felt
plugged when the eerie noise faded, and my head began pounding when the
congested feeling wouldn’t go away. The hum of the forcefield rattled into my
teeth and my ears again began ringing. I’m fairly certain that I spent some
time with my head buried in my hands, muttering to myself and fighting to block
out the excruciating buzzing of the Fenton Ghost Globe.
Sometimes the green mist outside moved so quickly that it felt like I was lost
in some tiny pocket of space where time ceased to exist; like everything was
moving and happening and passing by while I was immune to it. At others,
nothing moved. Panic leapt into my throat and I quickly phased back into my
human form to press a hand to my chest. My heartbeat felt faint and fluttery,
but I counted the thumps, reassuring myself that the world around hadn’t
screeched to a halt.
Freedom was less than an inch away. Cold and soupy and beautiful.
I had never wanted anything more than to be able to break through the barrier
and fly.
It took what felt like hours to convince myself to collect my thoughts and
breathe deeply. I looked at my rings and told myself what each was made of,
what store they came from, and how much I paid. I rubbed the back of my neck
until it stopped feeling like a block of concrete and tried to remember which
investors I was meeting with for the rest of the week.
To think that I had only been missing from home for a few hours - that it was
completely unlikely that an assistant would have tried to call or that Skulker
would’ve appeared with some request - made my stomach seize with horror. But
why would anybody be looking for me?
After all, I often went half a day without communicating with anyone.
“Vlad.”
Startled, I looked up to see Daniel hugging himself tightly, his eyes red and
his bottom lip marred with ugly teeth marks.
“Vlad, I’m losing my mind.”
His brilliant green eyes stood out painfully against the swollen red and he
shuddered as I watched him. A tiny sound slipped past his lips, faint and
hoarse.
The anxiety that sent sharp stabs through my middle as I lifted my arm climbed
into my throat and made my voice crack. “Just - for a minute - you should come
here.”
A flicker of sanity passed through him, making his gaze narrow with suspicion.
“No.”
“I’m serious. Just-”
“Are you crazy? Like I could possibly-”
“Come here.”
Danny clamped his mouth shut and froze at my tone.
After a long moment, his lips parted once more with a shaky breath. He unwound
from the ball he’d shriveled into and awkwardly pitched forward to crawl across
the small space between us. The boy bumped against my side, cold blossoming
from every point of contact, and I wrapped my arm around his lithe shoulders.
Eventually I rested my hand on his bicep and gave him a small squeeze.
For a long while Daniel remained tense, his hair brushing against my
collarbone, his arms rigid and wrapped tightly around his middle. “I want out
of here,” he mumbled, his voice thrumming beneath my hand.
“I know, Daniel.” His body was freezing cold, and I concentrated some of my
heat into the arm I had draped around him. “We’ll get out of this. It’s just a
matter of time.”
“Mmmn.”
Silence settled over us and I became aware of my heartbeat thudding in my ears.
He shifted against me, relaxing ever so slightly against my side.
“You suck, Vlad.”
The token insult caused a flare of amusement in my chest, momentarily
interrupting the crawling anxiety that was steadily resurfacing beneath my thin
veil of composure. “Thank you.”
Evidently, the pitiful attempt at witty banter was enough to satisfy his
conscience. Daniel let out a shuddering breath and the tension drained from his
limbs. The cold of his ghostly core seeped through my clothes like ice on a
bruise. My heartbeat slowed, thumping hard in my throat.
The smell of the hazmat suit that had become his uniform was strangely
soothing, and I found myself staring at his thick hair, amazed at the glossy
sheen of each snow-white strand. Being this close to him without being Plasmius
- without aiming an ecto-blast at his chest or having my hands around his
throat - was completely bizarre.
It suddenly occurred to me that I hadn’t been this close to another human being
in longer than I could remember.
The flash of light as he transformed into his human self startled me, and I
gawked at him as he fell asleep in a matter of seconds.
Contact with another living being had a sudden, powerful effect on the terror
lurking deep in my gut. Perhaps it was the rhythmic sound of Daniel’s breathing
or the simple chill of his ice powers dulling my own fire, but the desperation
grew quieter.
I watched my nemesis sleep, fascinated by his long eyelashes and his slender
fingers. There were dark circles beneath his eyes and he flinched as his sleep
deepened. Idly I wondered if the hum of the forcefield would be less maddening
to non-ghost ears … the field itself was designed to trap ghosts, after all…
Daniel twitched against me, fisting a hand in the fabric of my dress shirt and
letting out a pained sound. What was he dreaming about? Samantha? The constant
fear of a ghost lurking nearby?
Had fear and tension just become his default?
“Shhh.” The boy grunted when I rubbed his arm comfortingly, pressing his cheek
against my shoulder. “You’re safe, little badger. Sleep. There will be plenty
to worry about later.”
As I uttered my nickname for him, the boy’s grip tightened on my shirt and then
loosened. I rubbed his arm until he stilled once more.
My skull thumped against the barrier and I stared upward at the darkness
creeping overhead.
How long had we been here?
A day and a half? Four?
The projection of Jack’s face lit in my memory and I bit back a snarl. The
complete, utter idiot.
So strange that such an imbecile could make someone so extraordinary.
Closing my eyes, I let out a long breath. Daniel’s fingers twitched against my
side, and my stare eventually fell upon the device that buzzed maddeningly
above us.
There was only one thought within reach, and I grasped onto it and cemented it
in my mind.
No matter what, I could not let my sanity begin to slip again.
The ghost zone was silent and the hum of the forcefield drilled into my aching
teeth, and I closed my eyes once more, willing myself to sleep.
***** Chapter 5 *****
“Seven times nine.”
“Sixty-three.”
“Eight times four?”
“Uh, thirty-two.”
“Twelve times six.”
“What?”
I raised an eyebrow at him. “Twelve times six.”
The ghost boy gave a groan of annoyance, throwing himself back against the
curved wall. “What’s up with all the twelves?!”
Sighing heavily, I pinched the bridge of my nose in attempt to dull the throb
behind it. “You have passed fourth-grade math, haven’t you?”
A good while before, I had awoken to a startled noise and felt a sudden absence
of weight not long after that. I’d opened my eyes to find Daniel edging away,
resting when he had put a few inches between us. He rubbed his arms and looked
lost in thought. The lack of hysteria I took as a good sign.
Not long after, I allowed myself a long, thorough stretch, then nudged the boy
into a hesitant conversation.
Not long after that, I discovered that Danny’s knowledge of multiplication
tables was abysmal.
“Yes,” he drawled. “But why do you keep doing twelves?!”
“Many things in our society are measured, sold, and grouped in twelves, dear
boy. Don’t you have to measure things in feet and inches?”
The raven-haired boy shrugged. “Well, Dad’s seven feet tall. I just picture a
bunch of Dads end-to-end and guess.”
Good Lord.
“Hey.” The boy’s tone was placating, almost desperate. “Can’t we keep our minds
sharp with something other than math?”
“All right, Daniel.” I sighed, removing my fingers from where they kneaded at
my head. “What loosely-educational subject would you like to discuss?”
“Uhhh … English, maybe?”
The teen’s big, blue eyes were fixed on me as I attempted to decide what to
quiz him on. Despite being shaken by waking up against me, he actually seemed
to be much calmer and more optimistic now; almost incredibly so. I smoothed my
jacket for the hundredth time where it was folded in my lap, the annoyance at
having creased it a distant tug on my mind.
When I met his brilliant gaze Danny blinked owlishly at me. “How much do you
know about classic literature?”
“Probably … not as much as I should.” He ran a hand through his messy hair
sheepishly.
“Let’s see if your memorization skills are any more honed in the study of
theatre,” I decided, ignoring the flinch of horror and the protest that he
opened his mouth to make. “How many of Shakespeare’s plays can you name off the
top of your head?”
A look of utter misery came over his features. “You can’t be serious.”
I crossed my arms and glowered at him.
“Ugh. Okay, okay, fine. Um, A Summer Midnight’s Dream, maybe, Romeo and Juliet
… that’s the ‘to be or not to be’ one, right?”
I put my head in my hands and let out a howl of utter frustration.
Frozen, Daniel gawked at me. “O…kay, so it’s not that one.”
“No,” I responded faintly, “no it isn’t.”
“Vlad- look-” He let out a breath, gesturing defensively.  “That stuff just
doesn’t appeal to me. I mean, Shakespeare’s this immortal superstar, but his
plays and books or whatever aren’t all that great.”
“Well then, what kind of entertainment does appeal to you?”
“I don’t know! Like, funny stuff. I know Shakespeare tries to be funny, but I
like modern stuff. I’m a kid; I don’t have the attention span for things that
are so long they need an intermission.”
“Am I to assume that you’re watching crass, plotless comedies instead of doing
your homework?”
“No.” I gave the boy a skeptical look. He stretched his legs out and frowned at
his scuffed tennis shoes. “If you actually spied on me like you said you do,
you’d know that I don’t have any time for watching movies. The only thing I
read on my own time is the stupid jokes Tucker sends me.” He glanced at me
then, an oddly earnest look on his face. “Wanna hear some?”
“Please, no.”
“No, I’m serious. They’re mostly really dumb but hilarious. Wanna hear one?”
“Not even a little bit.”
“Even a fruitloop like you can't not find this hilarious."
“I highly doubt that, Daniel.”
“So what do you call a woman with no arms or legs when she’s rolling around on
the ground?”
I attempted with all my might to die spontaneously. It didn’t work. The
teenager was grinning, his shoulders shaking in his attempt to keep from
laughing.
“What do you call a-”
“I heard your question; I simply refuse to acknowledge it.”
He barely managed to speak through his own snickering. “Peggy,” he squeaked.
My hands smacked to my face for the hundredth time. “How did I ever consider
you a formidable threat?”
“Listen! Are you listening?”
“No.”
Completely undeterred by my disgust, the teen giggled maniacally. “Okay, okay.
Two cannibals are eating a clown.” He paused, forcing himself to breathe
deeply. “One says to the other: ‘Does this taste funny to you?’”
There was a moment of blessed silence during which we stared at each other,
equally wide-eyed. Daniel exploded into a fit of undignified giggles as I began
to question everything I held of value.
“I’m sorry.” He wiped a tear from his eye, nearly vibrating with a childlike
giddiness I hadn’t the slightest idea how to deal with. “He messages me stupid
jokes every time he knows I have a test to cram for. I can’t tell if he’s
trying to help or if he’s distracting me on purpose.”
“Remind me to update Mister Foley’s incompetence level in my files,” I groaned,
only half-sarcastic.
“Come on. If you laughed every once-in-a-while, maybe you wouldn’t be so bitter
and angry all the time.”
“My dear boy, if I-”
“Shhh!”
Surprised at his sheer audacity, I snapped my mouth shut. The urge to shoot him
with lasers from my eyes was overwhelming, but I refrained, worried that they
might bounce off the forcefield and hit me instead.
“This one is really morbid! You’ll appreciate it.” I glared at him as he
crossed his legs and sucked in a breath in preparation. “A woman wakes up in a
hospital, moves around a little, and shouts, ‘Doctor, doctor! I can’t feel my
legs!’ The doctor hurries in and goes, ‘It’s okay! That’s because I removed
your arms.’”
The feeling that welled up in me was completely foreign. It filled my stomach
and lifted through my chest, sweeping up into my head and making me snort. I
covered my mouth with the back of my hand. I was grinning.
The rush of endorphins from something other than sadism - it had been over a
decade…
Beside me, Fenton’s chiming laughter had drowned out my own. “I bet Shakespeare
would’ve liked that one. His stuff is all so dark.”
“Perhaps.”
“Okay, okay. One more then I’ll shut up.” He paused, exhaling and collecting
himself. “What do you call a fish with no eyes?”
I bit down on my tongue, commanding myself to be expressionless. His grin
bloomed and erupted into snickers. It took all of my willpower to look
disgusted.
 He clapped a hand over his mouth but a sputter of laughter managed to escape.
"D-do you know?"
"No."
He made a noise like an untied balloon. "You don't know it?!"
"No."
He squeezed his eyes shut. “A fshhh.”
It happened before I could stop it. The utter stupidity of it had me holding
onto my sides as a shocked and delighted high-pitched laugh bubbled up from my
chest. It was so, inexcusably absurd... Daniel’s own cackle was as loud as
mine, filling up the air and drowning out the dull hum of the forcefield’s
energy.
Gasping for breath, my diaphragm pulsing with the sudden ache, I pressed the
back of a finger to my eye to keep it from watering. “For heaven’s sake, that
better be the last one, Mad-”
I bit my lip, staring at the place between us.
Oh my God.
“I swear!” Danny was still laughing, clutching his heaving stomach. “That was
the last one, I swear.”
The music of his laughter faded away while I was lightheaded, heart having
leapt into my throat. Greenish mist swirled sluggishly past us and I swallowed
thickly.
Get it together, Masters.
It came back to me in a rush - who had last caught me so off-guard with an
absurd joke; who Daniel’s laughter belonged to. Despite never having shared
this ease with the smaller halfa before, it was nearly effortless to fall into.
“See?” Daniel smiled, pulling his shoulders together in a fleeting moment of
sheepishness. “If you laughed more, Plasmius, you’d probably live longer.”
“Giving your arch-enemy advice? You’d better be careful, little badger.”
“Eh.” He leaned back against the pale glow of the forcefield. I cocked an
eyebrow at him. “I’m not too worried.” My gaze drifted into the distance,
following the languid, sweeping energy where it faded into black nothingness. I
felt microscopic; like the globe encasing us was the size of a water droplet or
a plant cell. Pragmatism and careful, indifferent control were slipping away
and being replaced by a clear, childlike wonder. The present and my immediate
surroundings had gained control of my mind. Without the ability to run my
companies, my few servants, and my secret lab, all that remained was my ability
to simply be.
It was terrifying and liberating.
“I’m hungry,” the boy grumbled.
When I looked up at him, he too was watching the fog swirl endlessly below.
“Unlike me, you can’t feed off the misery of pubescent minors.” A charming
glare was thrown my way. “You should - what do you call it? - ‘go ghost.’ It
will postpone those little problems.”
“I know,” he insisted. Rings of light flitted over his form a moment later.
I turned my gaze away to hide my smile, and we fell into silence once more.
***** Chapter 6 *****
“I’m hungry.”
It was the third time in the past hour that Daniel had informed me of this.
“If you were to stay in your ghost form, you wouldn’t have this issue. You
might have noticed that ghosts do not eat.”
“I know … it’s just uncomfortable. I’ll never understand how my parents run
around in these things all day.” He phased back into his snowy-haired self, and
it struck me that he almost always threw out his silly catchphrase before
switching forms. Had I ever seen him transform without announcing it before
we’d gotten trapped here?
When I realized that many of the things that had happened before our capture
were becoming a blur as if out of a previous life, the nervous ache in my gut
clenched painfully. This is normal, I told myself yet again. A psychological
response like this is typical in unexpected instances of long-term confinement.
Another realization that hadn’t come to me without alarm was that I had never
been Plasmius for more than a few hours at a time. The first time the boy had
complained of his hunger, it occurred to me that it was probably past time for
my mid-afternoon meal back at home. Whether it was all in my head or not, my
own belly had begun to burble its complaints. I changed back into my own ghost
form to put the demands of the human condition on an indefinite hold, then
stayed a ghost for a period of time that I’d long since given up on measuring.
The longer I existed blue-skinned, my tongue making the occasional pass over my
temporary fangs, the more natural it felt. It was much like floating in water
for so long that the thought of climbing back out and existing outside of its
slow, heavy sway seemed almost impossible.
Could my ghost form be overtaking my human self as time went by?
Oh, butter biscuits, I’d cursed to myself; if only I could study this with all
the equipment in my lab…
Yet another example of how having another halfa around would allow me to do
research that was impossible on my own.
I found myself watching his awkward movements as Danny peeled off his white
gloves, tossing them aside and moving to unzip the high neck of the hazmat
suit. “I realize the fashion statement I’m probably making isn’t a good one,”
he muttered, exposing a groove of pale flesh that extended down past the dip of
his collarbone. The battle to push the suit’s tight sleeves up took him a good
while. He opted for kicking off his boots too, and he stared at his feet in a
daze and flexed his toes at their newfound freedom. It was odd to see how
snugly the protective material of the suit clung to his calves and his ankles.
Almost … indecent.
“I’ve seen worse,” I commented in an attempt at helpfulness. “Far worse.” It
seemed smarter not to vocalize the fact that the image that sprung to mind was
of Jack’s wardrobe in college.
The boy exhaled slowly and closed his eyes. Startled, I watched as he
absentmindedly floated upward, his skull clanking softly against the roof of
the globe.
“So Skulker isn’t going to come looking for you.”
“No; it’s highly unlikely he’d have found what I sent him out for yet.”
Despite having articulated this half a dozen times before, it was oddly easy to
be patient. I stared at him as he crossed his arms and pouted.
“Would the Dairy King come looking for you?”
I snorted.
“Hey, it was worth a shot.”
A small smile came, unbidden, to my face. I rested my jaw in the palm of one
hand. “What about your loved ones, Daniel? You’re positive that no one will
come looking for you?”
Even if his two best friends came looking for him, this was a location that
Daniel had never been to before, eliminating the possibility that the trio had
it mapped out. Even if they simply drove aimlessly out into the murk, we were
so far off-course that the chances of them coming across us were miniscule at
best. I wasn’t sure why I’d asked, other than that I enjoyed the newfound
civility between us and the familiar ring of his voice.
The teenager sighed, letting his arms hang loosely. Long, slender fingers
dangled in front of my face. “Mom and Dad would run around the whole town
yelling for me before thinking to check through the ghost portal … it was …
morning. It was morning when I left. They usually don’t even stop working for
lunch.” He sniffed, smiling fondly. His brows twitched and it took him a moment
to speak again. “So I don’t talk to them often during the day.”
His radiant green eyes burned greener for a second before he blinked back the
ectoplasmic tears that had risen in them.
“And Sam and Tucker … I don’t think they’ll notice if I don’t talk to them for
a day.”
My head cocked to the side and I frowned. Based on the information I’d gathered
from my spying, Daniel and his friends were inseparable. “Oh, little badger. Is
your greatness too much for them to handle?”
“I’d rather not talk about it,” he replied softly. His legs had disappeared in
favor of his ghostly tail, which undulated rhythmically in the cool air. I
flicked at a dangling finger disinterestedly and he batted my hand away.
Perhaps his breakup with Miss Manson created a rift in the group … or could
being a halfa be having the same isolating effects on him as they had on me?
Clearly not caring to dwell on his little friends, the boy met my stare. “Isn't
your suit uncomfortable?”
Surprised, I blinked at him. “Not at all.”
“Not even that stupid collar?”
“My dear boy, I don't expect you to understand my flair for elegance. And no,
no it isn't.”
“What's up with your…” He snorted, then went on. “…elegant outfit anyway? Did
the accident happen on Halloween or something?”
A sneer leapt to my face before I could stop it. “No. For your information, I
was wearing my usual attire when your father's incompetence ruined my life.”
“Oh. That's ... really weird.”
Sighing, I shrugged. “I suppose it could be linked to the conditions
surrounding our accidents ... we were young and had less data to work with when
I was affected, while your parents' portal was far better designed.”
“I guess so.” The other halfa grinned at me. “I have to say, I'm glad my ghost
half doesn’t have a drugstore Dracula wig for hair.”
“You-! How dare you, you little brat!”
Before I could think, I’d leapt to my feet, shoving my face into the teen’s and
releasing a blast of energy from my eyes. Daniel yelped and dove beneath me as
blinding light filled the globe and knocked me backward.
Light flittered before me. The dull sound of Daniel’s voice grew until his
cursing became intelligible. A strand of hair had fallen over my face, and it
appeared to be singed.
“…you fucking fruitloop,” he snarled, and my vision cleared just in time to see
Daniel draw back a bare hand and throw a ball of energy directly into my chest.
This was the one time in my existence that I will admit to screaming like a
girl.
Awareness crept in, my first sight being Daniel splayed against the far side of
the forcefield. Dull alarm began to well in my stomach. His lips were parted
and one arm was thrown across his chest, and the snowy-white hair was blown
back from his face in all directions. Breathing hurt.
Attempting to use my limbs failed miserably and I groaned as the smooth plane
of the forcefield sent throbbing pain through my shoulder blades and tailbone.
I squinted in wonder at what appeared to be one of the teenager’s gloves where
it sat on my stomach.
Daniel coughed and immediate anxiety sent me struggling through the pain to
push myself up. The air I sucked down my throat felt like it was full of
knives, but I managed to get into a sitting position. The cursed device was
still completely intact around us.
“I-” The boy descended into a coughing fit, and the pain that filled his
expression stamped out the last remaining traces of self-righteous anger in my
head. His final cough ended in a chuckle, his small smile more of a grimace. “I
think we need to sit down and have a discussion about the definition of the
word ‘truce,’ Plasmius.”
His eyes fluttered open and he grinned lopsidedly. I snickered. “Perhaps.”
The boy shifted suddenly and his eyes went wide, his weight beginning to pull
him down the wall. His jumpsuit made a shrill, squeegee-like sound that didn’t
end until he slid to a stop at the bottom. His expression was of horror and
disbelief.
He burst out laughing just as I did.
When I finally caught my breath, he was still laughing - musical cackles
punctuated by hoarse gasps. The sound made my chest feel near to bursting. It
was the laugh I had spent countless days of my youth trying to coax from
Maddie, and yet, from him it was somehow … better.
Daniel sighed, his arms draped loosely over his stomach. His gaze held mine for
a moment before turning toward the device above. The crooked grin faded as I
watched, reforming into a careful blank. Worry swam in his expressive pupils.
As quickly as it had dissipated, the thick swell of anxiety returned.
The low howl of the ghost zone picked up around us and I struggled to estimate
out how much longer this would last.
***** Chapter 7 *****
I awoke from a sleep so deep it felt like death.
My limbs felt numb and heavy, and my head buzzed with dreams that were so vivid
I could taste them. Yet as the relentless hum of the forcefield drilled through
and I became aware of the pale light leaking through my eyelids, I couldn’t
remember a single detail.
Long before I realized I was awake, I was aware of a scent both fragrant and
musky, reaching me on icy puffs of air. I hummed with contentment.
Daniel hummed back.
Jolting awake, I scrambled away. Danny made an irritated sound and rolled onto
his back. He was giving me a look that was very displeased and very much awake.
I wondered how long we’d been pressed together. Horror knotted in my stomach -
hard coils of dread and embarrassment that sent a rush of hot ectoplasm to my
face and the tips of my ears. The next question was even more bizarre: how long
had he been awake without moving to put any space between us, and for God’s
sake, why?
“Did you sleep well, Plasmius? I know old men really need their rest, but
dang.”
Plastering a convincing smirk onto my face, I smoothed the fabric of my ghostly
clothes. “I should thank you for that, my dear boy. It would appear that you
make a better pillow than a hero.”
“Pffft.” He leveled an unamused stare at me as he sat up. He proceeded to
stretch in a catlike manner, letting out an undignified sound, and I looked
around, feeling a bit better at having returned his customary insult.
Everything was maddeningly the same: nothingness for endless miles save for the
sluggish swirl of ghostly mist. The device above us seemed to be whirring more
loudly, as if low on electricity or fuel. The thrumming was fluctuating now,
its momentary buzzes louder and the pauses between them longer by milliseconds.
It whooshed through my limbs like a superhuman heartbeat and buffeted my ears
to the extent that I felt too disoriented to stand up.
Silence stretched between us so smoothly that I wasn’t aware of it until it was
broken.
“Hey, Vlad?”
“Hm?”
“I-I'm sorry about what I said before.” Daniel hung his head, staring somewhere
indeterminate below us. “About kids being as sex-obsessed back then as they are
now. I assumed you were a total pervert and I shouldn't have. You're evil. And
crazy.”
I scowled at him.
“But that was really lame. I'm always assuming things and that makes me ...
kind of an idiot. I should know my enemy instead of jumping to conclusions that
could get me in serious trouble later on.”
“Very perceptive, Daniel. Learning to make no assumptions about your
adversaries is crucial if you ever hope to defeat them. How would you like it
if I assumed your every action was dictated by your hormones just because of
your age?”
Phantom snorted. “You’d be wrongly assuming that I had the time, for one.” He
pressed his fingertips idly into his neck and shoulders, massaging away the
stiffness his human mind fabricated. I wondered if the unspoken statement was
that he had been too busy to spend any time with Miss Manson … no, that wasn’t
a sufficient explanation for their breakup; she had gladly accompanied him on
all of his heroic escapades…
“Ah, to be young, awkward, and inexperienced,” I drawled fondly. Thinking back,
I frowned. I didn’t have any fond memories of the time at all.
“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Daniel muttered tiredly. “Danny Fenton: can defeat ultra-
powerful, centuries-old ghosts without breaking a sweat but can barely work up
the nerve to kiss the girl who’s been into him for months.”
Frowning, I blinked at him. “Are you referring to Valerie or Samantha?”
He pressed his face into his hands. “Both.” After a while, self-consciousness
overcame him and he shot me a sidelong glance. “What? You’re not seriously
going to give me grief about it, are you?”
I raised my hands defensively. “Why would you think such a thing?”
The wary expression morphed into a sly one, and he straightened up. “I expected
you to give one of your speeches about how it’s just another example of us
being more alike than I realize.”
I huffed. “Very funny, Daniel.”
“Stupid, I know.” He stretched out, his back resting at the lowest point of the
forcefield and his arms flopping out to either side. His hip bumped one of his
boots, set neatly beside his gloves that lay on top of my folded-up suit
jacket. When had that happened? Had I done it? I couldn’t remember. “With your
money, you can have just about anybody you want.”
“Not exactly,” I murmured, surprised by my own honesty.
“Hmmm.” He lifted one lean arm, stretching his fingers toward the little disc
whirring maddeningly above us. He wiggled the long digits, and it suddenly
occurred to me that there were six, then four. Eventually he managed to create
another forearm that branched from the original at the elbow before growling in
frustration and letting his form return to normal. A smile found its way onto
my face as I watched him struggle. As talented as he was, he only required a
bit more discipline and he’d be replicating fully in no time…
With the squirming, swimming feeling of molecules doubling themselves, I split
myself in two. “Concentration, my dear boy,” I said in stereo, and the teenager
jumped, looking over at me with enormous eyes. “All you lack is proper
concentration.”
In the span of a second, a hundred emotions flickered over his face. He forced
his features into a neutral expression, then said, “That’s two Vlads too many.”
“Nonsense,” I insisted from one mouth, then from the other: “It’s a hundred too
few!”
“How can you make your double say different things?”
“It’s a bit like ventriloquism,” I responded, focusing my speech to come from
my left self. “With practice, you’ll be doing the same soon.”
Danny looked away, gaze not even registering the flickering wall of electricity
between us and freedom. “I still don't know how I'm supposed to take your
compliments.”
“Don't think of them as compliments, then. I'm merely making observations about
your potential.”
He snorted. “Me? Potential? That's how I know you're nuts.”
Frowning, I looked up at the machine above us. It hummed innocently down at me,
its lens winking as it emitted energy. My skin crawled and the hushed voice of
claustrophobic panic rose in the back of my mind, babbling frantically. I
swallowed, commanding myself to focus.
The boy continued to fume silently, limbs spread out as if mid-snow angel, and
I observed the rise and fall of his chest as I turned the facts I’d gathered
over and over in my head. I tried to decide whether his newfound pessimism had
caused his little breakup or if the reverse was true, and how best to keep him
calm and opening up to me. The world shifted and crept around us and the
inhuman wind howled somewhere far away.
After a long, long while, I pulled my gloves off and folded them neatly beside
me, then put a hand before my face, concentrating ectoplasm into my fingertips.
The globe winked into existence, its surface soft where it made contact with my
fingertips. I willed it upward, then flicked it away with my wrist.
The pinkish bubble meandered through the air before drifting downwards toward
the sulking teenager. For a moment, I wondered if he would even notice it.
Daniel grunted, turning his gaze upward when the reddish glow came into his
line of sight. “Uh - aaaugh!” He attempted to squirm away absurdly before the
ectobubble came to a rest on his chest. He stared at it, wide-eyed, and with a
clench of my hand, it popped. He yelped in surprise.
“Vlad-” He gazed up at me, a charming look of confusion on his features. “What
are you-”
He trailed off upon seeing the myriad of bubbles hovering above us. I focused a
bit more energy and created another, willing it into suspension. It drifted
lazily through the air, mingling with the others.
“How are you doing that - stop it!” He flinched away when one of the tiny
spheres popped on his cheek.
“Concentrate power into your fingertips as you would when preparing to fire a
blast, then refine it to a low level,” I explained. “Envision a bubble.”
Danny frowned comically at me, then turned his concentration toward the
ectobubbles hovering on the air currents within our prison.
I lost myself watching the boy struggle to duplicate my creations. He spent a
while shooting sparks from his hand and grumbling at his lack of control. The
bubbles jostled around as he released bursts of green light before finding the
slow circle they had been drifting in once more. After what felt like half an
hour, Daniel was creating popping electricity that flashed in a wide sphere,
swearing and jerking back upon creating exceptionally large sparks.
In an equal amount of time, half a dozen green bubbles of varying sizes had
joined my own.
Phantom stuck his index finger in the air, making the sound of gunfire and
launching a tiny, glowing sphere from his finger. He laughed triumphantly when
it collided with one of my own, causing both to pop. I realized that a smile of
amazement had spread across my face. In an hour, he’d surpassed me at something
I’d begun doing years ago.
“Daniel.”
“Huh? Jesus!”
I blew a cloud of pinkish bubbles at the boy, chuckling as he batted them away.
He retaliated by sending a flock of his own glowing spheres at my head,
laughing at me when I was unable to bat them all away successfully. The few
that popped on my skin were like puffs of winter air.
“Can all of our fights just be like this from now on?”
He flinched as one of the remaining bubbles floated down near his head,
fizzling out of existence upon contact with the forcefield beneath.
“But what about all of my ingenious plans?” I crossed my arms. “There are so
many you’ve yet to see.”
“But … bubbles!” He grinned, only the slightest hint of embarrassment slipping
through.
“I suppose, little badger,” I uttered, and he blinked at me in near-disbelief.
“But only if there’s nobody around to witness it. It would be … compromising
for the Wisconsin Ghost to be seen participating in such an absurd form of
combat.”
“It would be compromising for me, too,” he retorted.
“If anyone took you seriously, yes.”
I wasn’t expecting the bright green bubble that rocketed into my face, and I
let out an undignified shout when it popped in my eye.
His delighted laughter was almost worth it.
***** Chapter 8 *****
“So you were in paranormal studies and … metaphysics?” The boy had been picking
at a spot on the leg of his suit. He asked it out of nowhere, after a long,
easy silence, without looking up at me.
Oh. It drifted back to me as if a memory from centuries before. “Yes.”
“What is it, exactly?”
A question I hadn’t been asked in a very long time. It was a horribly tedious
thing to explain, yet his pensive gaze compelled me to answer.
“Metaphysics is the study of what cannot be studied. It’s where physics and
philosophy meet, one could say.”
“Okay.” He rested his chin on his arms, which were rested on his knees. “I feel
like I know less about it than I did before I asked.”
“Patience; I can’t explain what I spent half a decade studying in a single
sentence.” He pouted. “It is the discipline of defining and studying the things
in the universe that aren’t tangible or physically measurable.”
“Things liiike…”
“Technically, they’re referred to as ‘truths.’ Time is a fitting example. Its
existence is obvious, yet because it isn’t something man can harness,
philosophers and scientists struggle to define it. Truth, passion, justice …
civilizations that never mix will all recognize these concepts despite the fact
that they don’t have a physical presence.”
“Ohhh.” Danny blinked at me owlishly. “If it’s all about vague things, how do
you get a job in it?”
“Most metaphysicians become authors and professors in the subject. Some become
spiritual counselors, though that doesn’t help dispel the idea that we’re not
true scientists.”
“Metaphysicians.” He tried the word, the gears in his head turning audibly. “So
if everything had gone the way you planned, would you be a professor?”
I nodded. “Probably.”
“Oh man. You’d be a total slave-driver.” He smiled as he imagined it, eyes
flashing mischievously. A proud smirk spread across my face.
“What about you, my dear? You’ll be graduating before you know it. What kind of
careers are you considering?”
The boy grimaced, looking up at me. “I don’t know. I have so little time to
myself that I hardly ever spend it planning for the future. I always wanted to
be an astronaut, but with my grades, that’s a pipe dream.”
“You should set some time aside to think about it, Daniel.” The look he gave me
was weary yet knowing, and a voice in the back of my head wondered if his
parents had even halted their ghost hunting long enough to give him this
lecture. “Being a hero won’t pay the bills, and you shouldn’t put it off until
you’ve stumbled into a job that you’re not passionate about.”
Remaining silent, the snowy-haired boy looked away. He looked so small as he
faced me, curled into a tangle of long, awkward limbs. He sighed softly.
“Think about it. What do you want?”
Daniel chuckled bitterly. “That’s the last thing I want to think about.”
I cocked my head to the side, frowning. “Why on earth would you say that?”
“Trust me.” He unraveled himself, sitting up straight and fixing me in a hard-
headed stare. “You don’t want to know.”
“Yes, Daniel, I most certainly do.” I glared back, crossing my arms over my
chest. He snorted, rearranging himself so his feet were underneath him and his
weight shifted forward onto his knees.
“Fine,” he muttered, licking his lips, and his voice sounded almost shaky. “You
asked.”    
He put his weight on his hands and leaned forward until his immense pupils were
all I saw. My stomach dropped through the floor.
Danny drew in a sharp breath and pressed his lips against mine.
It lasted barely a second, his icy breath flooding my senses as his mouth
closed minutely over my own. A million thoughts assaulted me simultaneously and
yet my mind went completely blank.
The soft lips separated from mine and he drew back, his expression shockingly
composed. I stared into his eyes uselessly.
I managed to form a thought and it rattled up my throat.
“How … how long have you wanted to do that?”
“I don’t know,” he murmured, swallowing thickly. “A while.”
“Oh.”
A wave of either nausea or arousal rose up inside me though I couldn’t tell
which, and I put my head in my hands.
***** Chapter 9 *****
“Vlad.”
“No.”
“Tell me what you're thinking.”
“No.”
I breathed in deep to quiet the screaming of ectoplasm in my head. A deep,
thick whorl of heat blossomed within the shock, sending a shudder through my
frame that I doubt I managed to hide.
Even though it was gravely unwise, I looked up.
Daniel's eyes were swirling with energy and his shoulders sagged with
exhaustion. I could feel the desperate churning despite the space between us;
the weary, miserable need that makes existing nearly unbearable.
It had been days since we'd been caught and he’d had no privacy and little
physical contact … how I had overlooked this possibility was beyond me.
“Vlad…” He leaned forward a little, his voice aching and melodious. It made
such heat tear through me that the urge to move was unbearable and I shifted
slightly. I’d covered my face with a hand as if the barrier between us would be
of any use.
“I’m thinking,” I murmured, though any and all ideas of how to fix this were
crashing together and being lost in the roar of adrenaline and interrupted by
the lingering taste of his mouth.
“Just listen, please-”
I caught the pale fingers that had brushed my knee before realizing I was
moving. I stared at his hand in my own blue one, then up at his anguished
expression. I didn’t trust my body to do what I wanted and held still, not
releasing him.
“Do you realize what you’re doing, boy?”
His luminous eyes shone angrily. “Clearly.”
“And do you, by any chance, realize how difficult it is at your age to be
rational in regard to the person whom you-”
“You asked me what I wanted.”
Arousal thumped through my veins and his hand twitched within my grip. Slowly,
I released him, and his hand fell to his side, clenching and unclenching. He
was still leaning forward on his knees.
My eyes wandered over his face: his sharp jawline, his ghostly pale lips, his
heavy eyes and his strong brows.
Exhilaration and something very dark burned in my stomach and in my head, and I
forced myself to shut my eyes and let out a long, slow breath. I swallowed
thickly, was still for a long moment, then looked at him once more.
Daniel’s face was cool against my palm. His eyes fluttered closed and he let
out a chilly, faint breath, expression becoming pained.
“You’re making this far too easy, you know.” I drew my thumb over his bottom
lip, pulling him forward. Behind his parted lips, his tongue moved in response
to the contact.
“Shut up,” he replied breathlessly.
I grinned. “If you insist.”
A shudder raced through him when our mouths met, ghost energy radiating off of
his frame like the flicker of a dull light. He pressed closer when I released
him, the brief loss of contact too much, and when I ran my tongue over the
break in his lips, his hands fisted in the fabric of my cape. His tongue moved
to meet my own as he pushed between my legs, his firm stomach warming as it met
mine, and I didn’t think I’d ever been as aroused in my life.
“You’re shaking,” I observed, sucking in a breath. Danny’s fingertips dug into
my shoulder blades as he looked up at me. His pupils had all but swallowed his
irises.
“So are you.”
“Brat,” I sneered, embarrassed. He chuckled breathlessly.
When our mouths met yet again Daniel writhed, his grip becoming clawing as he
made a soft noise against my teeth. I found his hips with my hands and held him
still, attempting to keep myself just short of the line between sanity and
losing all control. He hissed in protest and a predatory grin spread across my
face.
“Vl-aaah-”
Gripping his snowy hair, I pulled his head gingerly to the side. The cords
stood out in his neck and he squeezed his eyes shut as he shuddered in
anticipation.
How strange it was to hold him in my arms.
To see him eagerly offering parts of himself that he had always ferociously
protected from me.
I savored the intoxicating smell of his skin, exhaling and feeling him squirm
against me before pressing my lips to the spot beneath his ear.
The noise he made had me mind-numbingly hard in an instant. I ran my tongue
over the flesh and sucked hard, refusing to relinquish my hold on his scalp and
his hip despite his struggles. His strong hands dug into my back hard enough to
bruise, and for the first time, I welcomed it. I let go of his hair to pull the
collar of his jumpsuit out of my way and moved down, absorbing the almost
static-like feel of his power as it leapt through his skin and over my tongue.
When I sank my teeth into the base of his neck I loosened my hold on his hip.
Immediately I was rewarded by a hoarse shout and the grinding of his hips
against me. Luminescent ectoplasm pooled under my lips, and as I licked it
soothingly from the tiny punctures, he pressed his arousal into me and I
realized that this could quite possibly be the farthest that the boy had ever
gone with another living being. My rival … my counterpart.
The only other.
I pushed my thumbs under the material of his jumpsuit and shoved it off of his
shoulders, latching onto his porcelain skin just over his collarbone. His groan
was equal parts anxious and relieved and he wriggled it off of his arms and his
chest. A startled sound escaped me when he hooked his legs over mine, forcing
himself into my lap and bringing his face nearly level with my own. The
developing muscles of his back were cool under my fingers. His own ghost-blood
still lingered in my mouth as his tongue ran across mine, so sweet that I
allowed myself a low, indulgent moan against his lips.
“Vlad.”
The poor thing was so terrified that I could hear the shaking in his voice. I
traced my fingertips admiringly along his spine, gazing into his eyes. The fact
that my moving hands were doing little to aid his concentration made it all the
more enjoyable. I slid my fingertips just beneath where his jumpsuit still
clung to his hips, feeling the bony space below his tailbone. Danny’s eyes
glazed over and he gasped sharply and rocked into me. I commanded myself
against all odds to maintain control.
“What is it, love?”
“Mnh - I want this gone.” His hooded gaze moved down to the clasps that held my
cape in place and then my belt. Shaking hands released fistfuls of my clothing,
giving me room to move. When I began to unfasten my cape, his hazy stare
dropped back to my waist and he fumbled with my belt before undoing the buckle.
I let out a breath as I nudged him back and moved to pull my tunic off, and the
slow twitch of his cock against my thigh and the look of helpless awe on his
face as I cast it aside was too much.
With a rush of desire, I placed a hand on his bare chest and shoved him against
the floor of our prison. Danny fell back willingly, his breath bumped out of
him by the impact. I shoved my pants down and discarded them, and as my
attention returned to his pretty eyes and his heaving chest, the gears once
again began turning in his head and he moved to peel the rest of his clothing
off. His squirming sent a thick wave of impatience through my core. I dug a
hand into the fabric, yanking it away from his hips, and the snug resistance of
the suit pulled him under me. He gasped sharply and his brilliant eyes hovered
blearily on my face as my gaze raked over his quivering form.
This was far better than anything I’d had planned.
The lewd noise he made when I grazed my fangs across his stomach had me
growling with delight and the muffled whine as I ran my tongue over the small
space between his pectorals was so arousing that my power flared sharply,
audibly buffeting the air around us. His slender fingers gripped the back of my
neck and tangled in my hair.
“Oh, Daniel.” I grinned at the little shudder that went through him at my mouth
shaping his name. He blinked at me, dazed. I realized I could see the frost on
his breath as he panted. “Could this be the day that you have finally run out
of snarky insults? You haven’t said … anything coherent in a while.”
Anger flickered in his stare, making his eyes glow as his face flushed the same
hue. Watching the slow transition between incoherent need and being able to
think was another fascinating reminder that I was the one lucky enough to
witness his first descent into pleasure at the hands of another being.
“Sh-shut it, Plasmius,” he retorted weakly. Funny how having him naked and
pitifully hard beneath me took the venom out of his words.
Leaning close, I let myself admire his flushed, glistening lips before making
eye contact. “Make me.”
Teeth dug into my bottom lip and his arms slipped over my shoulders as if he
were trying to see how far down my spine he could reach before dragging his
fingertips back up in slow, deep strokes. His tongue pressed past my teeth to
taste the roof of my mouth. Through the haze, I tried to keep from catching him
with my canines while greedily running my hands all over his skinny,
beautifully toned body. Any uncertainty was lost now to his desire to outdo me
and his fierce writhing proved it.
I gripped his arousal while he was distracted and he keened, curling in on
himself and giving me space to lick the sensitive spot behind his ear.
“V-Vlad I - fffuck. Don’t-”
Withdrawing from the bruise I was sucking into his flesh, I quirked an eyebrow
at the boy. I tugged down his straining length, twisting my wrist when I
reached the soft skin just under the head, and Danny howled and arched off the
floor.
This was definitely the farthest he’d gone with anyone.
“Oh,” I murmured, his shudder at my voice fueling my confidence. “Of course.
Too soon for it to be all over, hmmm?” Concentrating warm, liquid ectoplasm out
of my hand, I smeared my thumb along the underside of his length. When he
jumped and let out a whine I tightened my grip, holding back the orgasm that
Danny was surely on the cusp of.
“I … ah … mmmn.” I grinned at the pathetic attempt at a retort and shifted my
weight to my knees before focusing more slickness out of my other hand. His
vibrant, hooded gaze was dazed from the sudden pressure on his cock, his lips
parted and flushed and horribly sexy.
When I lowered my unoccupied hand to gingerly cup his balls the boy hissed and
jerked, slapping a palm to the buzzing floor and pressing the other into my
shoulder for anchorage. I massaged the superheated flesh and a squirming
shudder wormed its way up his spine. Teeth clamped down on his bottom lip, his
face morphing into a pained attempt at control. The lovely buzz of his power
electrifying the air chilled my skin and I slid my middle finger lower.
Danny’s teeth digging into his lip muffled his shout. I maintained my
ministrations, gingerly teasing his entrance and the thousands of nerve endings
that lie beneath it while keeping reassuring pressure on the base of his cock.
“Ahhh … ngh.” The boy jumped and squeezed my shoulder harder. His brows knitted
together and his Adam’s apple fluttered as he struggled to suppress the
startled, throaty sounds rising within him at the teasing circles I traced
around his opening. His chest heaved and his thighs shook, all so pale and wiry
and beautiful.
“Daniel…” The visible shiver that raced through him at my voice made a painful
ache thud through me. “It’s going to hurt.”
When his radiant eyes fluttered open, I thought that he finally realized the
ramifications of his actions, that he had changed his mind and would shove me
off.
He slid a shaking hand down, gripped my own, and pushed my wandering finger
inside him.
***** Chapter 10 *****
Remembering the beginning is difficult.
As pragmatic as I pride myself on being, our conflict has been so delightful,
so maddening, so utterly and entirely consuming that it has faded to a blur, a
distant backdrop to the sporadic battles the boy and I settled into.
The reunion I planned, the carefully concealed attempt to insert myself back
into Maddie and Jack’s lives, meeting their bright, if naïve, daughter and
their easygoing, talkative son…
How silly it all seems now.
Brilliantly white teeth flashed and Daniel arched off of the floor, his nails
digging into my hand as I concentrated ectoplasm from my finger and pressed it
deeper inside him. Despite the pain on his face, his arousal strained proudly
against my grip and his snarl blended into a breathy sigh as I shushed him
softly.
“Fuck,” he whined through his teeth. Pale thighs shook as I fought the building
desire to tear him apart. A growl rose in my throat as I pressed a second
finger to his entrance and I fought it down.
“Remember to breathe, Daniel.”
My voice felt thick. The boy’s body trembled around my fingers and then
relaxed.
“Ahhh-” A green eye cracked open, shimmering with tears. I smoothed my thumb
across his erection to watch the lovely, agonized expression it caused. Another
gentle stretch and his head lolled back, his spine curving sharply. The bite
mark at the base of his neck was beginning to turn odd colors. I wanted to dig
my teeth into it, but I turned my focus back to the suffocating heat beckoning
me deeper. “F-feels like I’m … gonna faint...”
“Look at me.” He turned his wretchedly beautiful stare to me, gripping harder
onto my shoulder and my wrist. “You will last.”
“Vlad-” I forced a third finger into the slick and gave his length two slow
strokes at the same time. “Ahhh! V-Vlad…”
Good God, that face.
The groan came out before I could prevent it, Danny’s grasp on the hand I was
preparing him with so tight that I heard a single knuckle crack.
How he could handle such pain and still be so turned-on was worlds beyond me.
Releasing a final burst of liquid ectoplasm, I gave a warning squeeze to his
arousal and began to withdraw my fingers. The half-sob he gave was desperate.
I gripped his bony hips and slammed into him before he could take another
breath.
The scream he released is the sexiest thing I have ever heard.
Darkness filled my vision and I raked in a breath despite the tight and the
slick and the heat. Danny writhed, nails digging into my flesh as he released a
hoarse whine, vibrating with terror and ecstasy.
“Breathe.” I rested my lips against his cheek while he shuddered. A near-
painful clench of his body shot a bolt of fire up my spine. So tight.
The ghost boy gasped sharply, head rolled back and eyes clenched shut. Finally
he released a long, shaky breath. His glassy eyes fluttered open and he met my
gaze. The determination shining through his fearful stare made me want to pound
him into the floor.
Gingerly, I shifted my hips back, the icy air meeting my flesh as I ground my
teeth together. Muscular legs squeezed my torso and Danny whimpered faintly
into my hair. I took a second to breathe in the smell of his skin and sweat and
fear before pushing in deep.
“Ahh - oh God.”
“You’re so tight, Danny.” At my praise, the boy’s grip tightened on my ribcage.
I braced my forearm above his head, gripped his straining length, and began
moving again.
Daniel’s hips jerked down to meet mine and a hoarse cry escaped him, his
insides seizing at me hitting deeper than before. At his body responding
immediately despite his terrified inexperience, something deep and predatory
gave a twinge within my core. Nuzzling the fragile space beneath his ear, I
rubbed his slickened arousal and rocked again into the suffocating heat.
“Ohmygod.” My rival’s fingers scrambled over my skin as I eased into his
quivering body. “Oh fuck, Vlad.”
“Language, Daniel,” I ground out, and his breathy sob into my ear beckoned my
hips deeper on the next thrust.
Electricity snapped from his skin as I pressed my mouth to the pale column of
his neck and slid my hand into the small of his back. He moaned weakly and hid
his face beneath my chin at the change of angle, his wiry body shuddering
violently. Ghostly hands scrabbled down my back for anchorage they couldn’t
find.
I ground my hips against him, pushing as slow and deep as possible and savoring
the heat and the submissive little noise he made before beginning to move
faster.
Icy breath poured from the boy’s mouth and he wailed when I pressed into that
little bundle of nerves hidden just inside him. The sound was raw and terrified
and desperate. Anything within twenty miles would’ve heard it, and the thought
made me even hotter.
“Vlad. Oh my God, oh God, Vlad, please, please yes, please-”
Danny’s eyes were so bright they were almost blinding, and ice spilled into the
air from between his parted lips like white smoke. I realized belatedly that
energy was leaking from his straining fingertips and filling my skin with its
sharp, crackling thrum. Whether being a halfa had increased his pain tolerance
or he was something of a masochist I couldn’t tell. The pain of restraining
myself to a moderate pace when everything in me was screaming to fuck him
senseless tore a growl from my throat.
“Ahhn! Vlad!” Pale skin glowed with ghostly power as his head lolled back, his
snowy white hair spilling against the floor as tears streamed from his screwed-
shut eyes.
The pained look on his face made me freeze.
Blearily, he opened his eyes, his breaths loud and rasping. “V-Vlad?”
“Daniel-” I squeezed my eyes shut, willed myself not to think about the soft
skin and suffocating heat, and tried again. “-are you - do you want me to
stop?”
The boy let out a panicked whine. “Vlaaad - please!” He writhed against me, the
velvety friction making me hiss through my teeth. “Don’t stop please
pleasedon’t stop!”
My rival gripped my shoulders and pulled me toward him with all his might,
staring at me like I was the only thing keeping him alive.
With a shudder of relief I buried myself inside him and plunged my tongue into
his mouth.
The sound of my hips slapping against his soft skin grew louder, echoing around
us and melding with Danny’s pleading cries every time my mouth left his to suck
down a breath of air. His teeth clacked against mine as he desperately sought
out my tongue with his own and I tightened my grasp on his hip, holding him
steady and moaning into his lips. Legs squeezed my sides in a vicelike grip and
Danny’s hands clawed over my back to pull me impossibly closer. I dug my
fingers into his soft hair and tore my tongue from the pliant mouth that seemed
to be trying to swallow me entirely, sinking my teeth into the delicate place
behind his ear and moaning with relief at his scream. I wanted him, all of him,
his voice and his glorious eyes and his wiry muscle and the sweet, velvety
softness of his insides, and I wanted him to be mine and mine alone forever.
“Vlad,” he sobbed, a string of drool running obscenely from the corner of his
mouth as he writhed and bucked his hips back onto my cock. “God - God, yes -
please-”
“Breathe, my dear.” His nails digging down into my skin sent a fierce whorl of
heat through my stomach. “Just - breathe - ahhh!”
Despite the pain, the boy’s length was hot and hard and weeping as it bumped
against me, prompting me to shift my weight to my elbows and reach for it once
more. The boy’s violent spasms and cries were becoming incoherent, nearly
reaching ecstasy, but I was pushing him in a way his body had never before been
pushed and there was no way-
“Vlad - ohmigod I - I’m-”
Before my fingers had even closed on his arousal Danny let loose a shriek that
split my ears and sent an excruciating wave of power rippling down my spine. He
writhed against me, body convulsing around my cock as I pressed into him, light
spilling in radiant beams from his eyes and his wide-open mouth as his nails
sank deep into my skin. I let loose a shout of frustration and forced my hand
to move on his erection despite Plasmius’s overwhelming desire to ignore his
pleasure and selfishly pound into the vicelike heat as it clenched around me in
waves.
The beauty of his orgasm began to fade as quickly as it had started, and
Danny’s palms pressed shakily against my shoulders as the last of his seed came
in spurts over my hand. I watched his expression morph, going from exquisite
agony to exhaustion to fearfully wanting as the waves of it washed over him and
I slowed my thrusts. He finally melted beneath me with a broken sob. Slender
fingers fell to either side, clenching and unclenching uselessly as his head
lolled back and stilled. I carefully pulled my arm out from where it had
supported the small of his back and he flopped bonelessly against the floor in
its absence. When I slid myself gingerly from his trembling body he let out a
soft whine.
Moments passed as I struggled for breath, the dense air of the Ghost Zone
gradually supplying my lungs with the sated fullness of before.
As the tremors wracking his frame ceased, I ran a hand over his face, wiping
away the saliva and brushing his snowy bangs off of his forehead.
“Was it what you expected?”
Danny’s eyes fluttered open and he gazed at me, utterly wrecked.
“No.”
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